Smart Platform & MR Damper
The exploration and extraction of offshore hydrocarbon is currently facing stricter requirements in environmental conditions, structural integrity, and dynamic performance. If the structural responses can be monitored and controlled, then smart-platform technology can greatly widen the applicability of current technology toward deeper waters and more severe environmental conditions. Mitigating the motion of offshore platforms requires enormous effort and significant breakthrough in real-time monitoring and structural integrity management – but it would do much to direct the offshore structures toward a safer and more reliable operational limits. One of our research interest is focusing on the robust dynamic simulations and analysis of a top-tension drilling riser in a tension leg platform (TLP) and/or semisubmersible, incorporated with a fuzzy logic-controlled magneto-rheological (MR) damper-tensioner system. The innovation is inspired from the successful engineering applications of MR dampers in land-based buildings as isolators against large amplitude earthquake vibrations. The specific characteristic of MR dampers in alternating the damping forces has great potential to interactively change the structural behaviors corresponding to various external loadings. This research is expected to provide a reliable and cost-effective solution for greatly expanding the capability of future smart offshore-platform technology.